This story came to my attention when I carried out reseach for a privatde client in 2020. The subject was George Henry Mason, who was born in 1885 in Leytonstone in Essex. George joined 44th Company of the Machine Gun Corps in France in the spring of 1916, then serving as Private 3010 of the MGC.
At some point George left the company, having been posted to join the small staff of the Fifth Army School of Musketry. This staff was not obliged to maintain a war diary. George had reached the rank of Warrant Officer Class II and appointed Sergeant Instructor by March 1918. He was awarded the Military Medal and as far as I could tell it related to a short specific period in which a detachment from the Fifth Army school was urgently called upon to join an improvised brigade known as “Carey’s Force”. It came into action on 26 March 1918, the fifth day of fighting against the German offensive Operation “Michael”. No details now exist which definitely confirm the linkage between this action and George’s MM but the timing and circumstances make it almost certain. His MM certificate is dated 14 May 1918.
Background
As the size of the British Expeditionary Force deployed in France and Flanders grew, it became too unwieldy for the existing hierarchy of command and a new level was inserted. It took its orders from the British General Headquarters and commanded a number of Corps (each of which at any time had two or three divisions, heavy artillery and other ancillary types of unit). Initially, First and Second Armies were established, but with the continued growth of the force in France and Flanders it eventually reached five. Each was substantially larger and more complex than the original British Expeditionary Force and rarely had fewer than 200,000 men under command.
On 22 May 1916, the Reserve Corps Headquarters under Lieutenant-General Sir Hubert Gough became the Reserve Army, which was then renamed Fifth Army on 30 October 1916. It participated in the latter phases of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and the early phases of the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917.
Each Army headquarters established a number of specialist training schools. They were normally situated reasonably near to the headquarters, which would generally be some 20-30 miles behind the front line. In early 1918 the Fifth Army School of Musketry was located at Pont-Remy (near Abbeville).
“Carey’s Force” and improvised defence
Beginning on 10 January 1918 the British Expeditionary Force extended its front, taking over about 20 miles of front (about that usually held by six divisions) from its French ally. This was undertaken after the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George agreed the extension despite the protestation of his military advisers. Fifth Army was given the task to take over this front and preparing it for defence. At that point, the army’s headquarters, which had been at Villers-Bretonneux (near Amiens) relocated to Nesle.
On 21 March 1918 the German armies commenced the first of a series of very large-scale offensives against the British in France and Fanders. The first, Operation “Michael”, sometimes known as the “Kaiserschlacht”, struck against Fifth and Third Amies. Attacking in overwhelming strength against a line ill-prepared for defence and thinly held in manpower terms, the Germans quickly pierced Fifth Army’s front. Over the next few days, they continued to make impressive progress and were approaching the key railway junctions at Amiens. The loss of these junctions would be critical, as it was on the key lateral and supply routes behind the British and French fronts. Every element of reserve was deployed in an effort to hold the attack.
At 11.30pm on 25 March, with the crisis at its height, a conference was held at Fifth Army HQ, which had been pulled back to Villers-Bretonneux. It was to identify every possible source of armed manpower that could be put into the line. The meeting managed to identify a total of 2200 men from various engineering units, schools of instruction and a newly arrived unit of the United States army. They would be given the task of holding 2,200 yards of front. Amongst them was a detachment from the Fifth Army School of Musketry and I believe that it included George Henry Mason. By 3.30am on 26 March orders had been given to each of the elements and transport sent to fetch them: George and his comrades at Pont-Remy were the most distant from the battlefield. Having arrived at Villers-Bretonneux by 9.30am, the detachment was placed, with others, under Lieutenant Colonel R. Horn (he actually commanded the Fifth Army School of Musketry). Later during the day the whole assembly was placed under Major-General G. G. S. Carey and for that reason it is usually known as “Carey’s Force”.
The detachment under Lieutenant Colonel Horn was to be situated on the left of the line to be held, between the River Somme and the wood, the Bois d’Accroche. War diaries and the British Official History particularly make note of work to protect the Somme crossing at Cerisy on 27 March 1918.
Exactly where George was when he carried out his act of bravery that earned the Military Medal is unknown, but it was evidently within the area depicted and quite probably in the protection of the crossing at Cerisy.
The German attack was slowed by this improvised defence, but soon pushed on across the Somme. It eventually held up in the first week of April 1918 while still short of Amiens. Fifth Army had sustained very serious losses, although the speed of the enemy advance meant that the proportion of men who had been taken as prisoner of war was high. The army was temporarily out of action and was substantially reconstituted before it returned to duty in July 1918. It is not clear from the war diaries exactly what happened to its various school staffs in this period. The Fifth Army participated in several phases of the final allied offensives of the war, notably in the liberation of Lille in October 1918. George Henry Mason MM was promoted to Company Sergeant Major before being returned home sick in December 1918.
Links
First Battles of the Somme, 1918
Maps produced using Linesman from Great War Digital